Frog tadpoles have a good nose for danger: Scientists know that they go from headlong swimming to total stillness when they smell a predator. Now, researchers have discovered that frogs get that odoriferous training very early on. When they're still embryos, they can learn to assess the threat level by sniffing for a predator's pheromones.
Embryos put into water containing the odour of a salamander and the odour of injured tadpoles learned that the predator's smell was a threat [BBC News].
In an experiment sure to make PETA squirm, crushed tadpoles were mixed with water in which a tiger salamander had been swimming. Embryos were raised in this water with different concentrations of crushed tadpoles. Once the embryos had hatched into tadpoles, researchers tested their response to only the salamander odor.
The idea was to see if the amphibian embryos could learn to associate the smell of injured tadpoles with ...
